Richard Jones (33)

A baby loggerhead turtle hatched on a beach in Australia and swam in the sea for five years before being caught in a net. A fisherman rescued her, and named her Yoshi (good luck in Japanese); he brought her to Two Oceans Aquarium in Cape Town, South Africa, where they kept her for over twenty years before preparing her to be released back into the wild - where she swam across the Indian Ocean, all the way back to Australia where she was born to lay her own eggs.

Back matter: author's note, map of Yoshi's swim, and a video and blog link: https://www.aquarium.co.za/foundation/news/yoshi-has-reached-australia-record-br...… (meer)

A little fox finds himself hungry, cold and alone at the North Pole. He pokes through the snow over and over trying to find food until finally he pokes through and gets stuck. He is rescued by a kind stranger and they become fast friends. But, who could this stranger be?
The author and illustrator combine soft colorful illustrations with a simple narrative text to create a story of friendship and kindness. The author uses varied fonts to draw attention to the text. She also uses a rich vocabulary including onomatopoeia. This book would be a great holiday read aloud for preschool and kindergarten visits and storytime. This book is a refreshing take on the typical Santa stories similar to Eric Carle’s Dream Snow. The reader is left guessing who the stranger is until the end.… (meer)

Richard Jones's illustrations are gorgeous, and a large reason I picked this book out for my niece's 3rd birthday book. They are fully digital but have a wonderful textural quality like watercolors or oil pastels, and many (if not most!) of the spreads in this book would be gorgeous as full-size wall art. The way he uses bits of coral-orange and pink in the underwater scenes is so good, and dynamic.

My niece is at the age where she loves anything about animals - especially sea creatures!, and my sister (a kindergarten teacher) always loves getting nonfiction books for the children, so this book seemed like a no brainer. The pictures tell the story as well as the text does, and the diversity of images and textures should give a pre-schooler plenty to get lost in. They certainly do for me! (Speaking of diversity - as a wheelchair user myself, I appreciate that one of the children in an illustration of the Two Oceans Aquarium is in a wheelchair.)

The text of the book is matter of fact and easy to read, switching between paragraphs of a few sentences and split phrases as the story and pacing require. I thought it got a little clunkier in the last few pages, but still easy enough to read out loud. There is some invention about Yoshi's life before she was rescued by the fisherman, but it's based on factual supposition about sea turtles and the waters she would have seen.

Yoshi, Sea Turtle Genius, is very nice and would be great for any nonfiction picture book collection about sea animals - with a bit of geography, too! And, of course, if you're a fan of picture books for the illustrations, it's a must-have.… (meer)

He's a wonderful little fellow with a red scarf to boot...but he's lost and alone which doesn't make for a comforting time! Though his travels take him near and far, a place to lay his head and rest his tired little feet seems hard to come by. After being chased from here and there, tired and hungry, ,he ends up at a little park...where it just so happens that a little girl with a big heart is about to return not only his lost red scarf, but a sense of security, and a heaping dose of love.

OH my, I was almost in tears reading this one! Though scant on words, the story, the images bring Perdu's plight to live and any animal lover will have their heart on their sleeve throughout the tale. I was so happy to see the little girl that had encountered little Perdu at various times throughout his journey appear before book's end. I just knew something GOOD was about to happen and the kindness she showed, the time she took, and the care she exuded were lessons to us all. It reminds us to take time to notice things around us, and care for more than simply ourselves. Even on our worst days, there's someone that may be worse off still, and showing a little kindness doesn't have to cost a thing.


**copy received for review; opinions are my own… (meer)